
































A GOVERNMENT OF LA^VS ‘tlATHEK THAN MEN. 

A proper appreciation of the virine, inteliig-ence, mental 
calibre and moral'and physical condition of the people is essential 
to suggestion of a remedy for their wrongs. The revolution of ’76 
did not produce, but called forth, the moral grandeur of Washing¬ 
ton. The 18th Brumaire was pot the cause, but the occasion of 
Napoleon. Thus the mental and moral, like the physical power in 
man, is passive, or cpiasi dormant, until occasion occurs for its em¬ 
ployment, the result of which depends much on the direction given 
b}!^ previous training. Ther * are in every town, county and State 
in America, massive brains and giant Intel ects equal, with equal 
opportunities, to any the world has ever ])roduced. 

Establish a local self government, and by operation of natural 
law there will be the highest m ntal, moral and physical develop¬ 
ment of the whole people Thus make the demand and the re¬ 
sponse will be as prompt and vigorous as the result will be wonder¬ 
ful and efficient. There will be the ever present example of one 
precinct to another for emulation or improvement. In county, town 
and State there will be the ripest, richest school of 1 arning and 
experience, where the pride of true manly iiidependen e, womanly 
modesty, purity and virtue, self-love, self-interest ; all that can 
[)rompt human action would impel to combination every mental, moral 
and physical power for achievement of the grandest, most glorious 
results. The happy solution of the problem of self-government, 
moral, social and political. As the husband and fathe'- recognized 
that the general government coinm< need in the precinct and that 
the general welfare depended upon it for its excellence, he would 
appreciate that the origin of social government was in t})e family, 
upon which society must depend for its purity, and that family 
government comriienced with the individual, he would thus be im¬ 
pelled by his affection, his reason and his desire for happiness to 
teach each member, by precept and example, that true happiness is 
found only in habits of virtue, and the greatest amount of enjoy- 



— 2 — 


ment derived from temperate indulgenee of the' natural appetites, 
tastes, desires and emotions, and whilst teaching them to rely upon 
and govern themselves h«. wbuld remove temptation by abolishing 
those gilded dens of vice now fostered, enriched and rendered mag¬ 
nificently attractive by the recl^ess extravagance and corruption of 
our present system of central government. 

The present American theory recognizes the right of but con¬ 
cedes no practical ability for self-government, and its political action 
is based upon a falsely assumed ignorance and mental and moral 
imbecility of the masses. Thus whilst flattering our pride with a 
theory of self-government, we have a condition in which the limited 
few, as deficient in morals as numbers, do the thinking for and 
govern the many. The remedy for this is in a government accord¬ 
ing to natural law. Society is not of man’s institution, but exists 
by the laws of his being, to which his rules of conduct should, but 
do not always conform, and this non-conformity constitutes misgov- 
ernment, public and private. National and individual. 

The multitudinous subdivisions of labor, essential to the per¬ 
fection of society, make it necessary that some portion of that 
society should be constantly employed in the government 
of the rest. It was hoped that frequent changes of 
those governing would prevent government from becoming an in¬ 
stitution separate and distinct from the people, but neglect in the 
education of the masses, predominant individuality of a few, with 
increase of wealth, strength and facility for centralization has 
rendered that hope futile, and government now has a strange and 
inconsistent independence of the people, • whilst its powers are in¬ 
creased at will, and perverted from their proper use. The temper 
and condition of the people is manifested by the daily increasing 
strength of the many associations, portending revolution, but not 
intelligent reform. 

To determine what to do, and hov? to do it, we must consider 
our nature, present condition and probable future. The mental, 
moral and physical inequality of men is self-evident. It is this 
which gives to society its existence, beauty, harmony and perfec¬ 
tion, whilst a refinement of protection commensurate with man’s pro¬ 
gress in the arts and sciences adds the charms of grace and elegance 
This inequality is probably his natural condition, since history ex- 


— 3 — 

hibits no instance of two men exactly alike. Were equality man’s 
natural condition he would ever be instinctively impelled to attain 
it, and during the rise and fall of empires, the life and death of 
nations and races, the development and destruction of their litera¬ 
ture, arts and sciences, must have regained it or the race in its 
struggles become extinct. x\.bsolute equality implies absolute per- 
^ fection, whilst, there can be no appreciable conception of society 
’ in which eacli individual was of the same size, color and form ; 
possessed of the same knowledge and the same facilities foracquir- 
ing it ; of the same mental calibre, and consequently of the same 
desires tastes and emotions. 

There could exist neither government nor society where no one 
possessed either the power or inclination to injure, and all were 
equally self-sufficient, self-sustaining and independent. The phil¬ 
osophy of life determines man the creature of circumstances; the 
architect of his own fortune, only to the ex^tent of his ability to 
mould, control or select his surroundings. either of which can 
he possess at birth, a tiny mass of mental, moral and physical de¬ 
formity, or beautiful development, as his parents have violated or 
observed the laws of health. In either event other influence de¬ 
velops and directs his being. His conscience is the creature of 
education, and as an absolute and infallible moral monitor has no 
existence. The least learned and experienced of men, comparing 
themselves with their neighbors. And the word independent of ed¬ 
ucation to convey no definite idea. Men are continually compound¬ 
ing with their consciences, and perhaps but fe^\^have lived to whom 
the lines: 

“Compound for sins that Ave’ve inclind to 
By damning those we have no mind to,” 

Were not applicable. Now, the sins that men are inclined to differ as 
the multitude of consciences and conditions in life, each individual 
in each condition thanking God, and himself, that in some things, 
at least, he is not quite so bad as his neighbor. Thus man consoles 
himself for his imperfections whilst he flatters his pride with many 
good intentions and some doubtful virtues. History discovers no 
knowledge of human nature more profound than is contained in 
the expression, “lead us not into timptation.” Man has never, un¬ 
aided, been able to resist sudden, unexpected and powerful temp- 


— 4 — 


taion. Plis na ure has not changed since his creation. As man 
lie is the same, whether king or peasant, lord or vassal, gjontleman 
or clown. The accidents of birth and fortune affect his manners and 
habits, not his nature. The ruler?, of men have ever been among 
the least obedient to the laws of God and man expressing in action 
the language “are we controlled by such fixed cause as gives the 
poor mechanic laws,” a bigoted egotism and self-ojiinionated infal- 
ibilty is the too frequent olfs''[)ring of the elevation to petty author¬ 
ity of the grossly ignorant, sensual and vulgar; whose tyraiiical 
intolerance of opinion is invariably in proportion to their igno¬ 
rance, as their merciless cruelty and oppression is oiily limited by 
their want of power. And thus the mass of mankind have too 
often and too long been controlled and used or governed and op¬ 
pressed, through their ignorance and superstition, by and for the 
b nefit of their few intelle<?tual .superiors, as man by his superior 
intelligence contro s the lower order of animals. Without impo t- 
ant exception Church and State have invoked each others aid in 
controlling mankind in peace and war, and for a like purpose, 
revenue and oower. 

Church wars have be^ n for the establisjiment, extension or en¬ 
forcement of dogmas. The Church method of suppressing man’s 
reason, destioying his independence and commanding hip obedi¬ 
ence, nor has any State Church ever failed to use force, when 
emergency demanded and occasion occurred for its emplovment 
force of eloquence, interest, passion, diplomacy and force of arms, 
until, in the econoiuy of Prqvidence, civil, religious and political 
oppression and consequent discussion, dissention and rebellion, 
gave religious freedom to the enlightened world and the different 
denominations, through their very antagonism constitute the strong¬ 
est bulwark of civil, political and religious liberty, and such is the 
nature of man that perhaps no mor • deplorable impediment to 
human progress could occur than their perfect union. 

Such cumbersome government would soon lose the substance 
in the form and drop morality from religion. All wars have been 
for accession to or acquisition of the power to govern or control 
some portion of mankind, whatever may be the result of war. The 
people do the ffghtins/, bear the burdens and suffer the loss, whilst 
the leaders reap the rewards, arrogate the honor and glory, and if 


0 - 


defeated lose little, save the object of that auibitioii for which they 
have sacrificed the'lives and property’, and desolated the homes of 
the pHople. 

Nearly 2,400 years ago when under the valerian law in the re- 
])ublic of Rome, a condemned citizen had the right of appeal to the 
people and the masses r-fused to enlist against Tarquin without a 
remissinn of their unjust indebtedness to a monied aristocracy, 
claimed for s rvices never rendered. A senate which wholly rep¬ 
resented that aristocracy usurped the power to appoint a dictator 
who made his will the law. About thirteen years after, the army 
joined the people in their demand and the indebtedness was re¬ 
mitted, biit a paid standing army was organiz d and thencefor* h 
the name of liberty was an engine of destruction and cloak for 
crime. Governments never voluntarily relinquish power and 
never decrease taxation. Their tendency is tO' usurp one and in¬ 
crease the other to the verge of bankruptcy and revolution. In all 
governments history has repeated itself in recording the exercise 
and exhaustion of human learning and ingenuity in deceiving the 
niasses as to the means and extent of usurpation, the mode and 
amount of imposition and methods of collection. To say t hat a 
people are free, whose gov-rnment possesses the unlimited power 
of taxation, is to say that the poor, illiterate, toiling slave owns 
and controls his wealthy, learned and powerful master. What 
availed the people’s veto in Rome when impoverished by govern¬ 
ment, beyond the power of resistance. That government usurped 
the power to appoint a dictator who suspended their consiitution 
and made his will the supreme law ? The same power excercised 
by Seward, in America,'Cromwell, in England, and Bonaparte,'in 
France, and to-day in every State, in such slight esteem is held the 
personal liberty of the citizen, the officers of every paltry corpora¬ 
tion in utter contempt of the most solemn conktitutional guaran¬ 
tees for its protection and multiplied legislative enactments for its 
preservarion habitually violate it with impunity. Written consti¬ 
tutions require the instrumentality of men to enforce their provis¬ 
ions, of what force and effect can they be if their interpretation be 
left to those men, since they must then speak the language of their 
interpreters, whose eveiy interest, in the very nature of things, is 
the enlargement and extension of power whilst the sole object of 


6 


their authors is its limitation and restraint. Fatal delusions to en¬ 
snare the masses, cunningly devised instruments admirably adapted 
to their oppression and enslavement, the virtue and intelligence of 
the people have preserved the small remnant of liberty we still 
possess, and not written constitutions, perverted as they have been 
in the last twenty years b}^ distortion and minconstruction into the 
most powerful engines for the suppression of liberty, destruction of 
law and order, extinction of virtue and corruption of the people, 
by making crime honorable and truth abominable in order to maiii- 
tain a partisan supremacy. They have taught America to realize 
in the blood of two millions of her sons, and appreciate; in the 
devastated homes of twelve millions of her people, the impotence, 
insignificance and imbecility of mere j^aper restraints upon power, 
and the facility with which in the hands of the bold, daring, am¬ 
bitious and corrupt partisan, by exciting the fears, inflaming the 
passions and invoking the interest of the masses, they are convert¬ 
ed into the most powerful and dangerous engines for their opores- 
sion. All rational action of mankind, as nations or individuals, 
finds a common origin in real or mistaken self-interest. Hence the 
power vested in government should be absolutely fixed and all 
construction avoided, by frequent and direct appeals to the people, 
in such manner as to prevent partisan and sectional interest or 
influence and at the same time, by large concurrent majorities 
secure the wisest and most patriotic action. 

Politics and religion are essentially intolerant. Their power 
should be limited to right reason. To that end partisan organiza¬ 
tion should b^ prohibited and partisan association discouraged 
until abolished. No person should be eligible to office who repre¬ 
sented any organized body of men, or who was brought forward 
by any caucus or convention then the intuitive philosophy of the 
people will invariably indicate the men prominent by peculiar 
fitness for position, and the operation of a common, unassociated 
but aggregate judgment will make the best selections. The greatest 
danger to liberty has ever been from party, now^ degenerated into 
faction by the tempting spoils of office, under the immense patron¬ 
age of the Federal executive, resulting from and based upon the 
power of unlimited taxation. Destroy this fountain head of cor¬ 
ruption and party disorganization must follow. 


Then parties will sustain their appropriate relations to goverii- 
ment and the people, viz: Earnest searchers after truth, efficient 
motors in the advancement and enlig’htenment of the whole people ' 
by philosophical discussions of all questions touching their material ’ 
wellfare, an honest expression of opinion upon measures 
of public policy, and association by their common efforts, of tlie 
learning, wisdom and experience of the whole people in the selec¬ 
tion of the best men and methods for the administration of govern¬ 
ment. Then there will be no danger of over taxation, because 
there will be neither temptation to nor object to be accomplished 
by it, where all are fully informed about and equally interested in 
seeking the general welfare. Then money will be shorn of its 
fictitious and assume its true value ; a labor representative. Then 
government will address itself to affording the readiest arid most 
rapid communication between the people, and the greatest facility 
forexchanging the product of their labor, the increase of which 
will rapidly become accumulated wealth. 

Our theory of government recognizes the people as sovereign, 
the constitution as next, the creature of the people, and govern¬ 
ment as third and lowest, being the creature of the constitution. 
Is this a practical truth, or has the order become reversed and the 
people servants of a government which has absorbed all power? 
The imperfection of language renders the perfect conveyance of ' 
our ideas impossible, whilst the frailty of human judgm^ent prevents 
the anticipation of and provision for all the emergencies which 
may occur amongst a new and great people. Hence the necessity 
for construction and application of constitutional law. How is that 
instrument created by the people for the limitation and control of 
government construed, interpreted and enforced ? By a govern¬ 
ment composed of the leaders of a successful party, representing 
sometimes a minority of the whole people, and not always com¬ 
manding the respect and confidence of that minority ! Administra¬ 
tion after administration have found the temptation to enlarge the 
powers of government by construction to be irresistible, uritil the 
constitution has become a great conduit through which power 
flows to government absorption. 

The 25th section of the judiciary act of l789, . enabled the 
Federal government to absorb the entire judicial power of the 



— 8 — 


whole people, and the act of March 3,1833, authorizing the enforce¬ 
ment of the discisions of that government by the use of the army 
and navy against the States or the peopl , virtually centralized all 
power at Washington. The people gave to both of those unequiv¬ 
ocally unconstitutional provisions their sanction 1)y their silence 
until upon occasion partisan strife,generating in and ern})ittered by 
the rapid increase of executive patronage, consequent upon cen¬ 
tralization of power, made internecine war possible. Until 1828 
the C'Uiservative element was compromise. ITie essential and dis¬ 
tinguishing characteristic of true republics. 

Acquiescenc • of the people in those two acts (1789 and 1833), 
gave them the force of law, changed the conservative element to 
force, and, leaving the Federal government in possession of the 
iinlimited power of taxation, party war became inevitable. With 
the “force bill” came removal from office for opinion sake and not 
as theretofore for misconduct or inefficiency, and the emoluments 
of office became really and principles, ostensibly the basis of party 
organization and action. Upon officials, however pure, was forced 
the painful truth that they were merely place men, subject to the 
will of a chief with wdiom they dare not differ. Offices multiplied, 
with increased salaries, and from the secretary to the laborer, were 
bestowed for the advancement of party interest. Centralized 
power began its practical manifestation and placed successful part}^ 
leaders in a‘condition to involve their constituency in an unholv 
and unn cessary war, which, ])y extending to and involving the 
interest of greqt sections,.eventuated in a war of arms. 

That the war of 1860 was partisan at its inception, more than 
sectional, is proven most conclusively by the fact that union and 
disunion among the native citizens of both sections were converti¬ 
ble terms with republican and democrat, and in the proscription of 
democrats North and republicans South during the war, both gov¬ 
ernments followed the teaching of the “force bill” upon the con¬ 
clusion of the war the party in power found their tenure of office 
to depend upon their ability for sectional proscription ; and now 
all over the land the people meet and fraternize as though no war 
had occurred, whilest all alike feel and suffer from its results. In 
all this silent, fatal change, have the people controlled the govern¬ 
ment as intelligent sovereign^? Or have they been controlled and 




rnisgaided by it through its noiseless corps of sappers and wiiners, 
the Federal supreme court ? Can the people be said to vote, when 
their secret ballots are as secredy coupted by a few government, 
officials? Does not the present manner of balloting open the flood 
gates of fraud ? Have not the array and navy been used in con¬ 
nection witli executive patronage to control two elections ? What 
more was done in Rome ? And with how little difference of plan 
and action*? Is this a demonstration of popular sovereignty, or an 
exhibition of slavery, in which the masses are controlled by every 
species of force, fraud and corruption, in the interest of their 
masters, the leaders of a party in power, miscalled g-overnment ? 
Never in the history of the Federal government has the constitu¬ 
tion been successfully invoked as a restraint upon the party in 
power, but seldom for the protection of the citizen against it, or 
punishment of its .officers for their political conduct. 

Are we not descril)lng a government whose power is (hat of an 
absolute andirresponslble military despotism, a government of men 
whose wills are enforced by the array and navy against the States 
or |>eople, as policy may dictate or occasion demand ? What 
people ever committed the folly of entrusting power to men upon 
the belief that they were good ? And yet this is the only protec¬ 
tion we have from a government from whose decree there lies no 
appeal but to the bayonet. Behold the virtue and purity, wisdom 
and dignity of that government in electoral commission of I87h ! 
The act creating it was void, because not within the province of 
ordiViarv legislation.' Void because congress cannot flelegate its 
political power to nor authorize its exercise by another body of men. 
Void because the exercise of other than judicial authority by the 
judiciary is repugnant to the 'etter and spirit of the constitution ; 
and our appreciation of judicial ermine would have suggested the 
resentment of indignant scorn at such approach, whilst blushing 
for shame at the disgrace of the nation. But the high commission 
determined its constitutionality in its own favor, by a partisan vote 
for a partisan chief, to maintain a partisan supremacy, exercising 
their will and disregarding the laa*; with such combinations the 
executive may soon be able to re-elect himself evm in defiance of 
his own [)arty. Does histojy furnish no examples of bold.and de¬ 
cisive strokes of executive usurpation ? Were there but Cromwell 


— 10 ~ 


and N’aj^oleoi), they teach a lesson of daiigei', not liolitly disregard¬ 
ed. Have we not abundant signs of revolution, eitiier by torce ol 
opinion or arms ? With judicial legislation, executive patronag<‘ 
and prerogative, congressional usurpation and subs(‘rviency., univer¬ 
sal extravagance and corruption in g'overnnient, and a cori'espond- 
ing iinpoverishinent, depression and demoralization of tlie people, 
does not necessity^imperatively demand it ? Are we not tending 
rapidl}’ to the practical concentration of all power in one man V 
Have we not almost reached tliat condition ? With whkt propheti<- 
vision are we'warned by Washington in liis farewell address of that 
partisan supremacy in whicli some leader, in re fortunate or more 
daring than the rest, may grasp the power to establish his tlirom^ 
upon the ruins of his country’s liberty. Was (General Grant’s 
European tour, with his history, his known ambition of and ability 
to use power ; his almost unexampled pojjularity with tlie dominani 
party, without significance ? Were his magnilicinit rece])tions by 
crowns, powers and principalities the voluntary tributes of homag*^ 
to his greatness, or were they procured by his dijilomacy ? Does 
Europe welcome the principles of republicanism to the destruction 
of lier thrones ? Or does slie recognize the fatal tendency of our 
institutions and greet a future chief? 

In the next commotion, external or internal, wliere the execu¬ 
tive is required to call into active exercise all tlie powers of gov¬ 
ernment, with the example before him of the suspension.of habeas 
corpus and imprisonment of citizens, with and without charges, 
because tltey dare to dilfer in opinion with any of liis olficials, sus 
tained too, as this has been, by the actual and pretended votes of 
the American jieople for twenty-one years. Maj^ lie im])roving upon 
the errors of, and profiting by the experience of Seward and 
Grant, not make his will the law and so prolong and close the affair 
as to finally fix himself upon his throne. 

The natural tendency of the people is to the simplest form of 
government, and worn out with civil commotion, internal dissen- 
tion, or exhausted by foreign war, they may readily resign them- 

selves to the power of one nfan, whose power is great, promises 
fair and burdens light. Will the people be lulled to sleep by tem¬ 
porary relief from recent great depression, or will they heed tin¬ 
warning voice of their better judgment and remove this greav 


’langor by (livf'stiiia; tlie power aiifl removing so ])Owerful a temp¬ 
tation before it is forever too late ? 

The hope for relief is not in change of parties, however mucli 
rre(jue?it chairges ma^^ assist the well directed efforts of the people, 
but of government, which must be deprived of that money I'tower 
by which it now controls the people and their commerce. By 
limiting its power to tax in amount and purpose, and confining its 
levies to sums in gross upon the States, and its appropriations to 
items, dvll legislation must be submitted to the peoyile for ratifi- 
«‘ation or rejection, including declarations of war. In this there 
'•an be no iiicoiivenience since all wars have been discussed for 
years before their occurrence and no sufficient check u])on hasty, 
ill-considei-ed or intei-es'ed legislation has yet been discovered, 
utherthan the concurrence of the people. Congress should sit but 
• nice in ten years, and then as originally intended, as a committee 
'»f delegates to consult the general welfare. To be convened in 
special session by a majority of the States upon a vote of the 
people, and govu'rnment be so reformed ^ to liecome a. local self- 
govei-nment of the people, as simple as their wants, with which it 
must be comm - nsnrate and familliar as their daily walks of life. 
The wisest and best government can neither control remotely del¬ 
egated power nor correct its manifold abuse. Productive of un¬ 
measured wealth, it is increased and sustained by its ill-got'en 
gains and grows and fattens by mere neglect. The' delegate, 
tfiousandsof miles from his constituents and comparatively irre¬ 
sponsible, is beset by every device that can appeal to the senses, 
'■very pBasure that wealth and luxury can suggest, his pride, 
avarice and his ambition are successively appealed to, and with 
scarcely a single safe guard to protect him, is it a wonder that he is 
ufiable to-resist such powerful temptation ? 

The Fed(n-al government is at Washington and not of nor 
with the States nor the people, to whom it is a mysterious stranger 
and alien enemy, occupying its time and the learning, talent and 
'•xpericJice of its officials in devising ways, means and expedients 
l>y which to extort from the people the largest amount of the pro¬ 
duct of their labor without actually destroying their industries and 
forcing them by sheer destitution into open rebellion, and b}" the 
'•orrupt use of this immense revenue its will perinea*es every- 


where, iVom the State legislature to the town council. To keep tlie 
people ill ignorance and sulijection, it has filled the land with a 
multitudinous swarm of officials, spies, informers, abandoned and 
adventurous, moral, social, religious and ]iolitical pro>i;titutes, who 
annoy, harrass, disturb, and foment, wliilst they eat up the sub¬ 
stance of the people. But blinded by avarice, enfeebled by lux¬ 
urious indulgence to effeminacy, and drunk with the jiower of an 
absolute and irresponsible military despotism. It has exercised 
the power of unlimited taxation for the aggrandizement of its crea¬ 
ture, parasites and dependents to th * almost entire absorption of 
the surplus product of labor, until impoverished to starvation, the 
whole people are organizing for revolution ; not change of parties 
nor administration, but of governmentthorough, efficient and funda¬ 
mental. 

, "’^"hy this ominous silence ? ’Tis the gathering elements of 
impending storm portending the fate of a great 
nation, for liberty or imperialism. Gfovernment, the apparent 
source of all power, profifand honor, the object of every low and 
mean ambition, is corrupting the youth of the country by its ever 
present and all powerful force of example, until ano her decade 
may consign the morality with the liberty of this people, to eter¬ 
nal oblivion. Change is inevitable. I' is but a question of time 
when one man will be absolute master of the lives and fortunes of 
the American people^ unless the change for liberty comes at once. 
Government cannot be perfected in a decade, nor indeed in a cen- 
tuiy, but its present evil tendency can be arrested, and a govern- 
m-ent of the people inaugurated, winch will forever remain with 
thepT, inseperable, indestructable, and incorruptable. Its inaugu¬ 
ration will commence when the people, regardless of party, unite 
* in the firm and fixed determination to vote for no man for officf-, no 
matter how insignificant, unless he be identified with them in in¬ 
terest, united to them by all the ties of a common social sympathy 
solemnly pledged and thoroughly devoted to the followino- reform. 
As man’s blood conducts that physeological exchange of particles 
which gives him life, in accordance with natural law, and without 
his volition, so the first duty of government in its provision for 
the general welfare is to furnish a healthy national life blood ; a 
stable and uniform currency. The volume of which shall be reg- 


— 13 — 


ulatecl alone by i he law of demand and supply, making- that cur¬ 
rency true money, a medium ot exchange, always representing 
substantially as much labor as any commodity for which it will 
exchange, having an indestructable value, susceptible of neither 
enhancement nor depreciation by government. 

Whilst the precious metals have mainly, in all ages and all 
countries, constituted the medium of exchange, because as labor 
products they have ever been inost truly re[)resentative of actual 
mental and manual labor, yet they sustain only a proportion of one 
percent, to commercial requirement, and other values must be 
created to supply the demand. 

Invoking tlie wisdom of the whole people, in whose combined 
judgment 1 have ^very confidence, my plan is submitted." In order 
that the pernicious local, and small credit system, by which the 
sweat of the poor man’s brow is made to till the rich man’s soil, 
may be forever abolished, labor receive its wages daily, and the 
people develop to the fullest extent all their industrial resources 
and become locally independent. The coinage of gold and silver 
should be unlimited. The treasury of each State should be a 
Federal sub-treasury with corivniiient additional depositories 
throughout the State, and sufficient mints for the reduction and 
coinage of jewels, plate and bullion. Let any citizen who desires 
the use of money, deposit in one of these depositories coin, 
jewels, plate or bulb on, at their coin value, in the proportion o 
one to three, and security on unincumbered real estate, at its low¬ 
est contingent cash value, in double the amount of the other two 
and receive in Federal treasury bills, payable in coin and receiv¬ 
able for allAlues to government, three dollars for each one of depos¬ 
it, paying on the two borrowed interest at the rate’of three‘per cent, 
per annum, limiting the rate on private loans to six per cent. The 
loan to be retained at the option of the borrower until the unpaid 
interest shall amount to one-half the value of the security, when 
the lien shall be foreclosed, as in other cases, so that in no event 
shall government become the owner or holder of the real estate. 
Then will the -wealth of the country be always disseminated 
amongst the masses, whose labor produces it, the coin retained in 
the country, because those bills will, in the nature of things, be at 
par throughout the entire commercial -world. Then accumulation 


— 14 — 


of wealth will depend upon industry and economy and not as now, 
upon speculation, combinations of 'ca]ntcil or fraud. Then no com- 
l)ination of capitalists can embarrass o-overnment, because the 
})recious^netals will be almost exclusively deposited in its vaults, 
nor the peopl *, because they will control the means bx^ which the 
product of their labor is exchanged. Then will the afiectionate 
devotion of the citizens to their government be unaberable, be¬ 
cause directly identih d with and attachedto it by the ever-present 
and indissoluble ties of real and permanent self-interest. 

Then will monopolies, with which the country is now filletl, 
and by which the markets and railways are controlled and the 
people robbed, die of their own inherent corruption. Then will 
monej^ be cheapened to its true value and no longer by unholy 
worship be made the source and cause of every ill. Then xvill 
labor, mental and manual, attain its true dignity and indej^endence 
and money and labor sustaiii to each other their natural and equiv- 
alen relation the creature and equal, as representative of its 
creator. Then will there never be unearned and unjustly accumu¬ 
lated wealth in the hands ^of the few, l)y xvhich the many can be 
()ppressed. Then will the current lifeblood of the nation permeate 
to each hovel in the land, and xvarm into life the frozen hearts of 
suifering’ millions, infusing vigor into labor, furnishing abundant, 
siiitable and profitable employment to all. d'hen, blessed with 
prosperity, universal peace and good will, xve xvill no longer hear 
applied to our land the terrible truth, 

“Ill fares the land to hastening ills a prey. 

Where wealth accumulates an.d men decay.” 

Then will our great highwax'S be oxvned and controlled by the 
commerce along their lines, for its oxvn increase and development, 
and not, as noxv, for the impoverishment of great sections to en¬ 
rich the few. Then xvill every resource in all this broad land meet 
its fullest development ; nexv roads be built ; nexv farans be opened; 
toxvns and cities spring up as if by magic, and the busy hum of 
manufactories, fully adapted to all our xvants be heard in every 
hamlet in our land. Then, indeed, xvill every countv in every 
Stat r be locally self-sustaining and independent. Th n xvill our 
National debt, thaj^ bane of liberty, xvliich sooner or later reduces 
the people o,f every nation to serfdom, be easily and rapidly ex- 


tinguished ajui a contingent fund accumulated sufficient to carry 
on any ordinary war without materially oripiing our industries or 
increasing taxation. 

The gold ami silver coin and hullion in the world is estimated 
at 1,000,000,000. The circulation oi France is $70 ])er ca]:)ita. 
We would require, more, but taking that as a basis we would in- 
• crease gradually as the increased production of our people increas¬ 
ed the demand it is safe to sav that in five vears after the inaugra- , 
tion ol this system the goveriunent vaults would contain 

$1,000,000,000 and receive interest foi‘ the ensueing twentv ^mars 
on $2,000,000,000. Ui.der the entire plan suggested expenses 
would be reduced. Yet, according to the treasurer’s last report, we 
may leave the government $300,00o,00O yearly, and a}>propriate, 
$00,000,OOO yearly to the coiiiingent fund, which in twenty vears 
wdl gwe S2,4 )0, ) ) >,()) 0 with which to carry on a three years war 
allowing twenty years as the average occun-ence. 'l|he above 
figures are only a fair approximate by way of illustration, but they 
are sufficient to show, according to present ;»rmy estimates for each 
soldier, that the fund would su])})ort an army of 

1,000,009 of men for three years without increasing taxation or 
contracting indebtedness. Thus taxation would be limited, fixed 
and uniform, aiid no material enhancement or depreciation of 
values could occur in peace or war, except those incident to pro¬ 
duction and consumption, and this would not be great, because in a 
self-sustaining country when war cripjiied one industry it would 
corres[)ondingly stimulate another, and we find the “Plureka” of 
political economjg a self-sustaining, cash paying people and gov¬ 
ernment. In a country possessing all the elements of prosperity 
the people are prosperious, independent and happy. .Just in pi-o- 
portion fo the facility with wdiich they can e.’^change the product 
of their labor, to this end money should be as abundant and cheap 
as the labor which produces it. This the system suggested pro¬ 
cures, whilst at the same time, it prevents any considerable fluctu¬ 
ation in and establishes the most perfect and invariable stajidard of 
values. It makes the people masters of their own time, labor and 
money, the three essential safe guards of self-government, for that 
government is absolute in power which controls the money of its 
{leople no matter by what name its form may be distinguished. 


Independent local seir-governine lit of the people establislied liow 
best it can be preserved ? By placing officers beyond the reach of 
temptation and making them directly responsible to their con- 
stitnen's. Each State should be divided into an odd number of 
counties, each county in like manner into districts, the districts into 
precincts not to contain more than two hundred and fifty voters, 
each and all as near that number as possible, each voter casting 
three votes viva voce, thus preventing loss of time from business 
bv attendance at the polls, making fraudulent returns imjiossible, 
bv the certainty and facility with wliich each voter rna}’" learn the 
true condition of the polls, securing confidence, reducing excite¬ 
ment to its minimum and procuring a minority representation for 
protection against the recklessness, extravagance, imprudence, 
improvidence and oppression of majorities. In pu’ecint elections 
majority should control in the district a majority of precincts, each 
precinct casting one vote, in the county a majority of districts, in 
tlie State a majority of counties, in Federal elections a majority of 
States, each like the precinct casting one vote. Government 
should commence in the precinct, which should govern itself in all 
things pertaining to its own welfare, vote and collect its own levies, 
and so with the district, county and State; each exercising the 
least amount of government consistent with the general welfare. 
The power of direct taxation should exist only in the precinct, 
and that of enforcement in the district and county. When the 
])eople ratify the legislative estimate, the State will issue her requi¬ 
sition to the county for a sum in gross, the county to the district 
and the district to the precinct, each having been a])portioned in 
the estimate according to wealth, population and benefit, thus all 
the people may know what is collected and how appropriated, 
bi-inging government home to the people, simplifying and famil- 
iarzing the people with it, to whom it is now a strange mystery, who 
can read and become familiar with the rnultitudiuous and volumin¬ 
ous yearly reports of government officials, unless he be a man of 
learning and wealth, and devote his whole time to that purpose. 
How often do the oldest members of congress call for important 
reports withjwhich they unhesitatingly announce themselves unfamil¬ 
iar, and then what grave and learned discussion as to what they 
mean and what they do not. Can that be called a government of 


— 17 


the people or for their benefit, of which they know nothing, except 
as a master and tax-gatherer, and whose main object they see and 
feel to be the extortion from them of the greatest possible amount 
of money for the agrandizement of the officials who compose it 

and the monopolies, cliques and rings by which they are kept in 
office ? 

In the State government all officers should be elected by the 
people composing their respective constituencies, their salaries 
fixed by them and the office without other emolument. Where any 
person to bear his proper portion of the - public burden, should pay 
a fee for service, it should be paid into the proper treasury. Each 
member of the State and Federal legislature should. have his 
salary fixed and paid by his constituency. Each district should 
elect two, so that any considerable minority would always be pro¬ 
tected by representation. For instance, a district contained 
30,000 voters 20,000 of whom belonged to on^ party and 10,000 to 
another, then the poll would stand 60,000 to 30,000 and each would 
elect'a reprt^ tentative, and the majority could not divide their 
vote so as to elect both. Majorities of more than two-thirds are 
too large, and minorities of less than one-third are too small to 
make oppression either probable or profitable. Members of con¬ 
gress should be impeachable by their constituency and triable be¬ 
fore a court of pardons and impeachments, sitting in th dr own 
state as a part of its government. Then there will be no more 
miscellaneous appropriation bills, squandering millions of the 
people’s hard earned money in profligate extravagance and elec¬ 
tioneering schemes. • 

All legislative estimates and Federal estimates made during 
vacation should be submitted to the people, as a single issue, for 
twelve months before the election to ratify or reject,, so they may 
be examined carefully, and discussed leisurely, without excitement 
or loss of time, and then we may abolish the odious internal reve¬ 
nue system, with its immense standing arm}’’ of officials and de¬ 
pendents, costing about $120,000,000, and collecting about $160,- 
s^ve $120,000,000 yearly, collecting the $40,000,000 
by the estimate and requisition system, without additional expense 
save the trifle of transportation. Values would become compara¬ 
tively fixed, so slight would be their variation, in peace or war, 
that all business could be safe and profitably conducted. 


— 18 — 


The President should be elected by the States, each casting- 
one vote, the people voting directly as in other elections, the Vice 
President by the senate. The President should appoint, by the ad¬ 
vice and consent of the senate, all foreign representatives, and no 
other officers. Ail Federal commissions should be in the name and 
by authority of the people of the United States and attested by 
the secretary of the department to which the office belongs. The 
cabinet and heads of beaureaus should be elected by the whole 
people, no two of whom should be from the same State. To secure 
efficiency they should hold during good behavior, impeachable 
by congress, who should fix their salaries. Postmasters should be 
elected by the people, their offices regulated by a general law, un¬ 
der the supervision of the Postmaster-General. Officers of the 
navy, above the rank of first lieutenant, should be elected by con¬ 
gress from the navy or naval schools; below that appointed by the 
officer commanding^ the vessel or squadro^' officers of the army 
above the rank of colonel should be elected by congress from the 
army; all others should be appointed by the general, upon the re¬ 
commendation of brigade, division and corps commanders, except 
vouliiteers, whose officers should be elected by companies, regi¬ 
ments, brigades, divisions and corps and commissioned by the Gov¬ 
ernor of the State from which they volunteered, commanding 
thereby the most essential of all things in war, the confidence of 
the soldiery. 

Each State should be represented by one judge on the Federal 
supreme bench, elected by the legislature of his own State, his 
salary fixed by congress, impeachable by the legislature of his own 
State. This court should sit as a court of errors, appeals, impeach¬ 
ments and pardons. It is dangerous to give political bodies juris¬ 
diction of impeachments; their divided and shifting responsibility, 
more inclines to license crime than correct abuse of power by a 
favorite and the fraility of human nature warns us to remove from 
the executive the dangerous temptation to veto and pardon. There 
must be no veto but that exercised by the people. The judges of 
the supreme court should be triable upon impeachment 
composed of the chief justices of all the States, a majority of whom 
would constitute a quorm, with the right of appeal upon law not 
fact to the supreme court of the United States. Upon the con- 


— 19 — 


struction or interpretation of constitutional law, an appeal should 
lie from the supreme court; State and Federal directly to the 
people. Then every line and letter of our constitution will be¬ 
come familiar to and receive a certain fixed and well defined mean¬ 
ing by the people. Then the people will be sovereign in fact. 
Then organic law will mean something. Then change will be con¬ 
templated with holy horror, until demonstrated by well established 
experimental facts, as absolutely necessary or highly beneficial. 
Then government will have stability and the people become firmly 
attached to its institutions, as wisdom, purity and virtue aid both 
to mould for each other the most excellent and perfect character of 
which man and his institutions are susceptible. Then will the facil¬ 
ity for frequent changes at great expense, requiring multiplicity of 
legislation to carry them into effect, embarrassing the people and 
endangering their liberties by the uncertainty and obscurity of the 
law be effectually abolished. 

Without organization resistance to a usurper would be hope¬ 
less. Patrick Henry said “your militia would turn against you” and 
such is human nature and the present condition of affairs that when 
called out, goaded by fear upon the one hand and induced by the 
certainty of reward upon the other, I believe they would. Congress 
has but to pass an act making it a misdemeanor to write or speak 
of a Federal officer in such a manner as would be calculated to 
impede or embarrass him in the discharge of his duties to complete 
the subjugation of the people. It is punishable as for contempt for 
the press to publish “anything calculated to impede or embarrass 
the administration of justice” and the conrt interested construes 
thelanguagey determines its effect, tries the offender without a jury 
and inflicts the punishment. Let the people demand everywhere 
that government be divested of that money power by which they are 
now so unjustly and so unnaturally oppressed and that it remain 
with the commerce of the people where it justly and naturally be¬ 
longs and they will be beard and felt as the tremulous rumbling 
thunders of the earthquake. Make this the key-note of every 
campaign and soon the heavy hand of oppression, which now oe’r 
shadows the land with its gloom, will disappear as the mist before 
the morning sun. 





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